The Florentine Florin

The politics and culture of money in the Middle Ages

By: Stefano Locatelli

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Hardcover | 18 March 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
272 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.5

Hardcover

$214.49

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Minted in Florence around November 1252, the florin became one of the leading gold currencies of the Middle Ages. Historians agree that its success was mainly due to the need for a stable means of payment in the networks of international trade. The Florentine Florin investigates the florin as a medium with hitherto neglected political, social, and cultural dimensions. By bringing human agents and political institutions more prominently into the history of the coin, this book enhances our understanding of money and its nature from a historical perspective, and provides an original framework for the integrated study of material culture and economic practices.

Industry Reviews

'A brilliant distillation of Italian and European economic history of the late Middle Ages.'
Sergio Tognetti, Archivio Storico Italiano.

'The book is convincing and substantive: a culmination and a solid basis for research on the florin and medieval monetary history'
Andrea Papi, I quaderni del MAES

'Stefano Locatelli's The Florentine Florin is a masterful account of one of the most researched (but still relatively misunderstood) historical processes that marked the passage from the central to the late Middle Ages in Latin Europe-the minting of the gold florin (fiorino) in Florence from the early 1250s and its success as a widely-recognised currency... Locatelli is able to flesh out the elements of the historical context that made Florence an economic powerhouse, something that has long been regarded as nothing short of a mystery; thanks to him, that mystery is far less obscure now.'
Lorenzo Tabarrini, Journal of Medieval History

'By reviewing and meticulously analysing the available literature, he highlighted the limitations of previously accepted explanations and provided a nuanced and convincing picture of the success of this fundamental currency in the medieval economy.'
Philippe Lardin, Le Moyen ge

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